Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Hotel Jukkasjärvi

Jukkasjärvi is a locality in Lapland in northern Sweden, situated in Kiruna Muncipality, Norrbotten Country. It has 519 inhabitants (2005), situated at 321 meters elevation.
The name is of Northern Sami origin, where Čohkkirasjávri means lake of assembly, as the area by the lake by which the village was founded was a Sami marketplace. The village got its first Finnish-speaking resident settlers in the 17th century, who changed the name into the more Finnish -sounding Jukkasjärvi, thereby removing its meaning, although järvi (jávri in Sami) still means lake in Finnish. This was also the name used by Swedish officials.
The village is a popular tourist accommodation during the winter months and is best known for the Icehotel. The wooden church is the oldest building in the village (built around 1607/1608) and is well known for its wooden carved altar piece triptych.

First World Hotel

First World Hotel is a standard 7-star hotel at most of its rooms. Below the hotel is a 500,000 square feet (46,000 m2) plaza called First World Plaza , housing shopping malls, arcades, food outlets, Starworld casino, The Pavilion and the Genting indoor theme park. It has a stage for weekly performances (such as magic and music shows) at the area called Time Square, surrounded by a replica of the Statue of Liberty and an Oscar statue. Other facilities including Watersplash Pool (an indoor water theme park for children), Genting Sky Venture (Asia's first free fall simulator) and a cineplex.

Utter Inn

Utter Inn (Swedish) or in English, Otter Inn, is an art project by Mikael Genberg which offers underwater accommodation to the public. The facility is entered through a typical Swedish red house located on the surface of the water. The only representation of this concept is, at this point, located in Lake Malaren ear the town of vasteras in Sweden.

Ice Hotel

An ice hotel is a temporary hotel made up entirely of snow and sculpted blocks of ice. They are promoted by their sponsors and have special features for travelers who are interested in novelties and unusual environments, and thus are in the class of destination hotel. Their lobbies are often filled with ice sculpture, and food and beverages are specially chosen for the circumstances.
All of the ice hotels are reconstructed every year, and are dependent upon constant sub-zero temperatures during construction and operation. The walls, fixtures, and fittings are made entirely of ice, and are held together using a substance known as since, which takes the place of mortar in a traditional brick-built hotel

Capsule Hotel

The guest space is reduced in size to a modular plastic or fiberglass block roughly 2 m by 1 m by 1.25 m, providing room to sleep. Facilities range in entertainment offerings (most include a television, an electronic console, and wireless internet connection). These capsules are stacked side by side and two units top to bottom, with steps providing access to the second level rooms. Luggage is stored in a locker, usually somewhere outside of the hotel. Privacy is ensured by a curtain or a fibreglass door at the open end of the capsule. Washrooms are communal and most hotels include restaurants, or at least vending machines, pools, and other entertainment facilities.
This style of hotel accommodation was developed in Japan and has not gained popularity outside of the country, although Western variants with larger accommodations and often private baths are being developed (such as the StayOrange.com Hotel, Yotel the Pod Hotel, and citizenM in Kuala Lumpur, London, New York and Amsterdam respectively). Guests are asked not to smoke or eat in the capsules.
These capsule hotels vary widely in size, some having only fifty or so capsules and others over 700. Many are used primarily by men.There are also capsule hotels with separate male and female sleeping quarters. Clothes and shoes are sometimes exchanged for a yukata and slippers on entry. A towel may also be provided. The benefit of these hotels is convenience and price, usually around ¥2000-4000 a night ($21–42, 16-31, £15–29).
Most roomers are businessmen too tired or far away to make the trip home. Others (especially on weekdays) are too inebriated to safely travel to their homes, or too embarrassed to face their spouses.

Coober Pedy


People have a long-standing connection with the area. The first European to pass near the site of Coober Pedy was John McDouall Stuart in 1858, but the town was not established until after 1915, when opal was discovered by Willie Hutchinson. Miners first moved in around about 1916. The harsh summer desert temperatures mean that many residents prefer to live in caves bored into the hillsides. A standard three-bedroom cave home with lounge, kitchen, and bathroom can be excavated out of the rock in the hillside for a similar price to a house on the surface. It remains at a constant temperature, whereas surface living needs air-conditioning, especially during the summer months, when temperatures often exceed 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit). The relative humidity rarely gets over 20% on these hot days, and the skies are usually cloud-free. The average maximum temperature is 30-32 degrees Celsius, but it can get quite cool in the winter.
Coober Pedy is a very small town, roughly halfway between Adelaide and Alice Springs, that has become a popular stopover point and tourist destination, especially since the completion of the sealing of the Stuart Highway in 1987.
Interesting attractions in Coober Pedy include the mines, the graveyard, and the underground churches. The first tree ever seen in the town was welded together from scrap iron. It still sits on a hilltop overlooking the town. The local golf course - mostly played at night with glowing balls, to avoid daytime temperatures - is completely free of grass and golfers take a small piece of "turf" around to use for teeing off. As a result of correspondence between the two clubs the Coober Pedy golf club is the only club in the world to enjoy reciprocal rights at The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews. Both the town and its hinterland, for different reasons, are very photogenic and have therefore attracted film makers. The town itself was the setting for the 2005 film Opel Dream. The hinterland, notably the Breakaways and Moon Plain, have featured as backdrops in films including Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome,Red Planet, Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Pitch Black and Sa;ute of the Jugger, which made considerable use of locals as extras. Coober Pedy also featured in the second season of the TV series, The Amazing Race. The book Wildfire by Chiris Ryan includes Coober Pedy but states that there are only 3 buildings on the surface and the rest of the town is underground. The town is a pivotal location in Wim Wenders' 1999 film Until the End of the World.

The Pierre Hotel,

A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. The provision of basic accommodation, in times past, consisting only of a room with a bed, a cupboard, a small table and a washstand has largely been replaced by rooms with modern facilities, including en-suite bathrooms and air conditioning or climate control. Additional common features found in hotel rooms are a telephone, an alarm clock, a television, and Internet connectivity; snack foods and drinks may be supplied in a mini-bar, and facilities for making hot drinks. Larger hotels may provide a number of additional guest facilities such as a restaurant, a swimming pool or childcare, and have conference and social function services.
Some hotels offer meals as part of a room and board arrangement. In the United Kingdom, a hotel is required by law to serve food and drinks to all guests within certain stated hours; to avoid this requirement it is not uncommon to come across private hotels which are not subject to this requirement.[citation needed] In Japan, capsule hotels provide a minimized amount of room space and shared facilities.
In Australia and Canada, hotel may also refer to a pub or bar. In India, the word may also refer to a restaurant since the best restaurants were always situated next to a good hotel.